Pathfinder - Warpriest Archetypes Breakdown

Disclaimer

I will use content from the core rules, but will intentionally omit any content not published
on the official Pathfinder SRD due to the
unmanageable volume of non-SRD content, and the wildly varying quality of non-SRD content.
If you would like me to write handbooks for specific content not published on the official
SRD, please email me and I will consider it on a case-by-case
basis. I will use the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build
handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational.

Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances

Green: Good options.

Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character.

Temporary Note: Pathfinder Unchained and Occult Adventures were
both recently added to the SRD. I'm excited to explore them, and I am actively working
on adding their contents to my collection of handbooks. I appreciate your patience while
I make these changes.

Archetypes

The Champion of the Faith takes the Warpriest a little bit closer to the Paladin.
Smite introduces a problematic dependence on Charisma, making the Warpriest very MAD.
If you were planning to play a Face, you need a bit of Charisma anyway, so Champion
of the Faith can be a good option. Pick up Divine Protection, and you're even closer
to the Paladin.

Chosen Alignment: This shouldn't matter.

Sacred Weapon (Su): The Warpriest can only enhance their
weapon for a few rounds per day, so giving up that ability doesn't matter much. Having
your weapon automatically aligned is much better, as it allows you to overcome DR of
your likely enemies. At high levels you get to make your weapon holy/unholy/etc. for
a few minutes per day, which will provide a nice damage bonus.

Detect Alignment (Sp): Detect alignment and hit things
in the same round! Dropping Detect Alignment to a move action makes it much easier to
use in combat.

Smite (Su): Smite is a fantastic ability, but introduces
a problematic dependency on Charisma. Fortunately you can do without the bonuses
provided by Charisma, so don't feel compelled to invest too heavily.

The Cult Leader is a really cool flavor. The Cult Leader gives up the Warpriest's
better armor options for improved skills and a bit of Sneak Attack damage. This makes
the Warpriest more of a Striker than a Defender, but in some parties this can be an
effective combination. This effectively makes the Cult Leader a divine equivalent of
the Arcane Trickster.

Class Skills: A much more Rogue-like skill list. The
addition of Bluff helps if you plan to play a Face, but the other changes aren't
particularly important.

Acrobatics (Dex): Too situational.

Bluff (Cha): Essential for any Face, but
Charisma is a dump stat for the Warpriest.

Climb (Str): Too situational.

Diplomacy (Cha): Essential for any Face, but
Charisma is a dump stat for the Warpriest.

Heal (Wis): Excellent supplement to magical healing,
and the Warpriest should have decent Wisdom.

Intimidate (Cha): Essential for any Face, but
Charisma is a dump stat for the Warpriest.

Knowledge (local) (Int): Useful for identifying
humanoids, and for some campaign-specific purposes.

Knowledge (religion) (Int): One of the most important
Knowledge skills.

Perception (Wis): The most rolled skill in the
game.

Sense Motive (Wis): Essential for any Face, but
Charisma is a dump stat for the Warpriest.

Sleight of Hand (Dex): Very situational.

Spellcraft (Int): Great for identifying spells and
magic items.

Stealth (Dex): Essential for general sneaky things.

Skill Ranks per Level: 4+ still isn't a lot, but it's
better than the 2+ which normal Warpriests get.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The Rogue proficiency
list is fine, but you're probably going to spend all of your time using your deity's
favored weapon. The light armor and light shields are a problem.

Well-Hidden (Ex): Situational.

Sneak Attack (Ex): Not as good as the Rogue, but Sneak
Attack damage is always welcome.

The Disenchanter is all about Dispel Magic, which is weird for a class like the
Warpriest. Instead of getting into melee and waving a weapon about, the Disenchanter
expects you to stand around casting Dispel Magic. While dispelling a heavily buffed
enemy is helpful, most enemies won't be buffed, which means that in most encounters
the Disenchanter's signature ability is worthless.

Bonus Feats (Ex): Instead of the full list of combat
feats, the Disenchanter is limited to a small set of feats. Most of the options are
situational or bonuses to saving throws, but some of them add some extra effects to
Dispel Magic. Fortunately, you don't need to meet the prerequisites for the feats,
so you can take all of the better options without taking the worst ones.

Destructive Dispel: Turn your dispel spells
into single-target stun spells. Combined with Dispel Synergy, the target
will take a -4 penalty to saves against your spells on your next turn. If
only the Warpriest was a full caster so you had some decent save or suck
spells.

Dispelling Critical: Critical feats are
not reliable, and it's hard to predict when you will manage to crit something
and also need to dispel that target at the same time.

Parry Spell: Counterspelling is rare, but
this is a cool way to use it.

Ray Shield: Near-immunity to ray spells.
High levels bring scary ray spells like Polar Ray and Enervation, so this
can really save you from a lot of problems.

Mystic Interference (Su): The duration isn't great, but
this is nice to drop before a fight. Sacred/Profane bonuses are among the rarest in
the game, so this should be easy to stack.

Banish Enchantment (Su): A nice supplement to the
Warpriest's 2/3 spellcasting, but you may have trouble at high levels because this
doesn't upgrade to Greater Dispel Magic.

The Forgepriest is a cool concept, but has a few fatal design errors. The best item
crafters are full casters because they get access to key spells earlier. The best way
to craft items is to use Spellcraft because you only need one skill for every type of
magic item. The Warpriest is only a 2/3 caster, and gets bonuses to Craft. The Forgepriest
gets access to some crappy spells, and access to item creation feats as bonus feats,
but neither of these are enough to fix the Forgepriest.

Blessings: Only one blessing limits your versatility.

Smith's Spells: Most of the options are situational,
with very few interesting options.

jury rig: Very situational.

shield: A decent bonus, but the duration
is too short to rely on at low levels.

heat metal: Amusing, but terrible.

shatter: Very situational.

keen edge: Not terribly important unless
you are building for critical hits, but the duration is decent.

quench: Very situational.

versatile weapon: Situational.

wreath of blades: Fantastic for a melee
character. Even at rounds per level duration, you can easily exceed the damage of
a d6/level blast spell, and you can further enhance the damage by enhancing the
daggers.

fabricate: Situational.

major creation: Extremely versatile and
powerful.

mage's sword: Fun with decent damage,
but at this level spells should be considerably more effective.

Forge Mastery (Ex): Most item crafting is done using
Spellcraft. Taking a craft skill for every type of item that you want to make is
impractical.

Bonus Feats: More options are always nice.

Craft Magic Arms and Armor: The Forgepriest already
gets the option to select crafting feats as bonus feats, so this seems redundant.

Creator's Bond (Su): The Warpriest's Sacred Weapon
ability only allows you enhance your weapon for one round per level per day. Sacred
Armor works for one minute per level per day, which is a much better but less exciting
use of Creator's Bond.

Heat of the Forge (Su): Energy resistance is always nice,
but the Warpriest can cast Resist Energy.

The Sacred Fist is an interesting take on unarmed combat. It combines the basics
of the Monk with the Warpriest's spellcasting, giving the Sacred Fist an exciting
list of magical options in place of the Monk's Ki abilities. Because the Sacred Fist
is so similar to the Monk, you can use a lot of the same options when building a
Sacred Fist.

Class Skills: Largely the same as the Warpriest, but
the addition of Perception and Stealth add some interesting options.

Acrobatics (Dex): Situational.

Climb (Str): Too situational.

Diplomacy (Cha): Essential for any Face, but
Charisma is a dump stat for the Warpriest.

Escape Artist (Dex): Very situational.

Heal (Wis): Excellent supplement to magical healing,
and the Warpriest should have decent Wisdom.

Intimidate (Cha): Essential for any Face, but
Charisma is a dump stat for the Warpriest.

Knowledge (history) (Int): Situational and
very dependent on your campaign.

Knowledge (religion) (Int): One of the most important
Knowledge skills.

Perception (Wis): The most rolled skill in the game.

Ride (Dex): The Warpriest doesn't get a mount
to ride.

Sense Motive (Wis): Essential for any Face, but
Charisma is a dump stat for the Warpriest.

Spellcraft (Int): Great for identifying spells and
magic items.

Stealth (Dex): Essential for any Scout.

Swim (Str): Too situational.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: This resembles the Monk
weapon list. Losing armor and shields is a big problem, but fortunately yo ucan get
by on Unarmed Strike for weapons.

AC Bonus (Su): This bonus needs to make up for both
armor and a shield, and because the free bonus is a deflection bonus you can't rely
on a ring of protection to help make up the difference.

Flurry of Blows (Ex): Lots of attacks.

Unarmed Strike: The damage takes a while to pick up, but
it gets pretty good at high levels.

Blessed Fortitude (Su): Like Evasion for Fortitude saves.

Bonus Style Feat: Style feats are essential for unarmed
fighters, but unlike the Monk the Sacred Fist still needs to meet the prerequisites
of the feats.

Ki Pool (Su): Losing three Monk levels worth of Ki really
hurts because the Ki Pool is already so small. The insight bonus to AC is a great way
to make up for the Sacred Fist's lousy AC, but it will eat your Ki very quickly.